Pakistan's New Pace Sensation

Last week a national record in Pakistan was broken. Sohail Khan took a match haul of 16-189 including a 2nd innings 9-109 playing for Sui Gas against WAPDA in Pakistan's ongoing domestic first class competition. The record breaking spell broke a 50 year old Pakistani record of 15-76 set by the great Fazal Mahmood back in 1957.

Sohail Khan, a right arm fast bowler from Malakand (a village in the norther areas of Pakistan), is currently playing his first season of first class cricket in Pakistan. Although the first time I heard of Sohail Khan was when he took the 16 wicket haul last week, taking a deeper look at his 9-match first class career shows that the 23-year old boy has made quite an impact on the domestic scene.

He is currently the leading wicket taker in the on going Quaid-e-Azam Trophy with 65 wickets in 9 matches at an average of 18.43! He has taken 5 wickets in an innings 8 times, and 10 wickets in a match twice! He has an innings best of 9-109 and consistently bowls at over 85mph!

Sohail took 5-59 & 5-75 in his debut first class game against . He followed that up with 5-68 & 1-50 in his next match. In the next 6 matches he produced figures of 4-68 & 5-90, 4-102 & 1-39, 3-93 & 3-48, 2-103 & 0-26, 5-86, and 6-102. This was followed by the 7-80 & 9-109. I don't remember the last time a pace bowler made such an impact in Pakistan's domestic circuit.

Pakistan continues to produce quality fast bowlers. With Shoaib looking towards bollywood, Asif and Gul injured, Sami unable to deliver results, Sohail Khan could well be sharing the new ball with his namesake Sohail Tanvir in the near future.

This is Sohail Khan's profile on cricinfo. Here you can read an interview he gave after his record breaking feat.

With a low key series against Zimbabwe coming up in January, Pakistan surely need to give this boy an opportunity.